


As one (as family)

by StarOverHeaven



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Do not repost this work to another site, get these people therapy 2k21
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:54:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28913424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarOverHeaven/pseuds/StarOverHeaven
Summary: This time, it's Dream's turn as the villain.(Contains spoilers for Jan 20-22 Streams for the Dream SMP.)
Relationships: Dream & healing
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50





	As one (as family)

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Big author's note at the end, mostly theories, reasons behind my inspiration for this, etc. It's nearly 900 words long. I'm so sorry.

Tommy and Tubbo aren’t the only people he visits. 

The prison is a reminder of a dark moment, but he ignores it as he appears in the room. It’s small, compared to the sheer scale of the redstone and stone around them. 

Dream seems… small. Human. 

“Hello Dream.” Wilbur murmurs. Dream lifts his head only slightly from where it was pressed against his knees. His mask is gone, the porcelain that he’d used as a barrier from reality long lost. It’s strange to see him without armor again, like they’d gone back to a twisted version of the start. Wilbur meets his eyes, chocolate to fading green, and smiles. 

It isn’t a bitter one, but a warm one. Something fond and broken, like a shattered mirror greeting a shattered window. It’s strange to see Dream like this. Like they’d gone back in time to the start. Both of them are _villains,_ their blood dark and their blades stained, their fingers covered in gunpowder and ash. 

“Wilbur.” Dream murmurs back. His voice is crackly and hoarse, something sad there that had always been hidden behind a mask and cruelty he’d forced onto himself. 

“I see you finally did it.” Wilbur says, sitting beside the other man without comment. Dream watches the fragile shivery image of one of his old friends with something like grief. Wilbur smiles at him, setting his head on his hand. “Did you miss me?” 

Dream laughs. “Sure.” He replies with amusement, and Wilbur grins at him. 

“Tommy told me you’re bringing me back Big D.” He jokes, voice light for all the darkness that lingered in the room. Dream’s lips twist, a strange expression on his face. 

“Yeah.” 

Wilbur considers him for a moment. Dream doesn’t look well - but that’s to be expected. The lack of human contact had twisted him into something bitter, but the joy of seeing everyone gathered together had reignited his wilted flame. His skin was scarred and covered in fresh burns, and Wilbur’s eyes flick to the lava then back to Dream again. 

It’s familiar in a bad way. Wilbur had done the same - a lack of regard for himself that ended up giving him more scars. He remembers Pogtopia vividly. He remembers not sleeping longer than ten minutes at a time, paranoia carved into the back of his eyelids keeping him awake at night. He remembers sleepless nights spent patrolling Pogtopia’s walkways like a ghost as Tommy and Techno slept below, some ancient instinct telling him that danger was always near. 

He remembers not eating, only doing so when he needed the energy to heal, to run, to sprint. Wilbur had prowled everywhere like a feral cat, large and deadly claws coiled into familiar hands so that he appeared harmless. In the limelight he had smiled and joked of buttons and TNT, but in the dark when he was alone he flicked a lighter until his fingertips were singed from the flame. 

Armorless and dangerous despite it, a knowing of death as deep as the one heart on his wrist. He had fought like a feral animal in that war, thirsted for blood and gained scars from the flames that bit at his arms from the arrow he’d taken. He remembers Techno giving him golden apples he didn’t eat, remembers the eager rush of his blood as his blade bit into flesh and his arrows struck true. 

Now, he knows that he wasn’t in the right way - he recognizes his dislike of wearing armor having turned from wanting everyone to be safe in L’manberg to something far darker, his wish for his own _lack_ of safety. He remembers standing amongst the Pogtopians while his body ate itself because he never ate. 

The fact that he recognizes this same lack of self care in Dream… 

Scares him. 

But it isn’t only this that tells him of Dream’s lackluster love of life. There’s grief in the other man's eyes but something else lingers also - a strange emptiness that Wilbur knows all too well. The eyes of a man who had nothing to lose, nothing to gain. The eyes of someone who no longer cared. 

Except Dream did. Dream had fought against the hold of death, fought to live. Not because he wanted to live, but because he was afraid of what would happen to them all if he didn’t, the self sacrificing dumbass that he was. 

Dream wasn’t unforgivable, for all that some part of Wilbur wanted to gut him for what he’d done to Tommy. For all that Dream had wanted a friend so badly, so desperately, that he’d become a monster trying to get one - to get them back. But he’d recognized it, eventually. Dream had embraced being that monster, hoping against all hope as he whispered to himself in that damned vault. 

Dream was broken, just like Wilbur. He’d wanted them all to be happy, to be together. Wilbur had wanted his family to be safe. In a way, they had similar goals, merely clashing in their methods. 

He would never be offered the chance of closure that Wilbur was. Would never be able to exist in the afterlife where emotions were figments, merely wisps of joy or sadness. Would never be able to seek the freedom of the end of everything a soul was, when the soul faded into the Void and became one of many, banished from a world that would never see them again. 

But Wilbur had never really moved on, either. He lingered in the Void of the afterlife, forcing himself to relive every moment so he would forget nothing. He had always been trapped, not dead enough to be truly dead and not alive enough to be in the land of the living. 

“Was it worth it?” Wilbur asks into the empty quiet. The bubble of lava and the ticking of the clock as the mechanisms inside showed the time were the only sounds except for their voices. Except for Dream’s breathing, shallow and slow. He doesn’t get an answer immediately, but he knows from the way Dream’s eyes crinkle at the corners and how his expression changes that the answer is _yes._

“Was it worth it?” Dream echoes quietly, lifting his face to look Wilbur in the eye. He isn’t repeating - he’s asking. 

Wilbur looks at the lava and then at his hands, stained in ash and his own blood long dried. The skin is scarred, tiny cuts that had built into something visible over years of accidents, of fighting, of war. They were still sensitive from the feeling of sand and gunpowder against the skin as he made the TNT, slaving away every night and appearing back in Pogtopia with stains on his coat and raw hands, smelling of gunpowder. 

“Yes.” He decides finally. There was… a lot of pain. For all of them. He knows Techno will forgive him, because in the end Wilbur did not betray him nearly as much as the others - he’d gone through with what he said he’d do, after all. He had… plans to make it up to his brother who was not his brother anyway. Tommy saw him electing Tubbo as a betrayal. But that was long past, now that it was over. Tubbo betraying Tommy he could not forgive, but would pretend he did to make Tommy feel better, at least. 

Wilbur had been betrayed by a lot of people, and his list of who _hadn’t_ betrayed him was fairly short. 

_Dream. Technoblade. Philza. Niki._

Others, ones he’d not known as well. _Ranboo. Puffy._ He owed Puffy for helping his brother. He owed Punz, no matter what they’d say. Wilbur would treat them kindly for protecting his little brother, in repayment for what they’d saved him. The grief of his brother’s ghost beside him in the end of it all as they waited for the rest of their family. Families. 

He lifts his head and stares at the lava. The obsidian is warm against his back, the heat suffocating for all that the cell felt frozen. 

They sit together like that for a long while. Wilbur isn’t sure how long - it doesn’t really matter all that much. 

“Dream.” Wilbur says, and his voice is a rasping thing, tired and worn. “Is it bad? That we were villains? That we were the bad guys?” 

Dream is silent, his elbows on his knees as he lifts his head to sit it against the wall with a thunk. 

“Is it bad that I liked it?” 

Dream is not so silent at this. “No.” 

Wilbur considers him, dark chocolate eyes glinting with red. Dream turns his head after a second, looking at him right back. For a moment everything is still. 

They are just two villains meeting in the eye of a storm, aching where they’d hollowed themselves out and told themselves everything was okay. Their insides were raw where their sparks had burnt them out, where the edges of the mirrors of their minds had shattered and dug the edges of each piece into their hearts. 

In reality, the bad guys always have a _reason._ Sure, their reasons were not always good. Sure, they usually went about it the wrong way. But they always had _purpose_ to the cruelties they did, even when it was as simple as revenge or for greed. Their purposes had been either, in the end. 

But that didn’t mean they were good. They would always be villains no matter their redemption. They weren’t like Eret, something minor in the grand scheme of things. They would go down in history as the biggest betrayals, and stories of them would carry through centuries of the craters they’d made as they paved their paths. 

Their stories would not be told in any real accuracy because nobody knew the reasons behind their actions but themselves. 

Silently, Wilbur offers Dream his hand. It is only vaguely there, a faded image of himself. Dream takes it with no hesitation, a smile curling at the edge of his lips. It’s a faded, broken thing - just like Wilbur was. 

“It was an honor to be a bad guy with you.” Wilbur whispers, smiling. 

“It was an honor to be taught by you.” Dream replies, eyes warm yet so, so sad. 

“I’ll visit you.” Wilbur promises in the dark. “Forever, if I need to.” 

Forever is a long time. Dream’s smile tilts a bit at the edges, something teasing. “I do owe you a night where I buy the pizza for once.” He agrees, his voice warm and nostalgic. 

Their laughter is bright in the dark of the obsidian, in the flickering light of lava and the black stone encasing them. Two broken men reuniting in the broken shells they’d left behind of themselves, fragile and raw like newborn birds in a world unfamiliar and empty of warmth. 

Only one voice reached the Warden watching over Dream, a voice broken and far too familiar. 

A warden who is suspicious at the way Dream’s eyes glint with eagerness at the idea of resurrecting Wilbur. Who is suspicious at the way Dream smiles when the topic is brought up, who hands books to Tommy with crinkled eyes and an upturn of lips and bad jokes on his tongue. 

It isn’t Dream scheming, this time. There’s no joy in that for him anymore now that he’s done with his plans. Now that everyone’s reunited. 

No. 

It’s the joy that Dream holds in his heart at knowing he has a friend waiting for him beyond that veil, one with eyes just as dark and scars just as deep. Hands just as stained and teeth just as sharp. One who knows the scent of gunpowder and the way it feels when the grains of the sand rub your hands raw from days of making each bundle until the scent sinks into your bones. 

This is the Dream who cashes in his favor with Techno with an anxiety once long hidden, one with a nervous grin as he asks Techno to be a _friend._ This is the Dream who apologizes to Ranboo when the other man confronts him and asks if he can make it up as they bond over writing in books. This is the Dream who asks Phil if he can help the man build and tend to Techno’s bees, the one who spends hours following Sam like a well-broken horse as Sam tests probationary measures. 

This is the Dream who hides behind Wilbur when the revived man stands tall, all dark eyes and a prideful too-sharp grin as he greets Tommy and introduces the prisoner on probation who stands behind him, weak and half-starved and nervous, desperate for acceptance. 

Wolves are lonely and half a beast without a pack. But Dream? Dream’s got a pack, now. 

They’re all villains, uniting with clasped hands and broken hearts and the way their heads are repaired like kintsugi with the trust that if these people would betray them, at least they’d say it to their face before they did. 

This is a second chance, the breath of cold wet air as the storms draws close. 

This is the days before the red creeps too far up the sides of the crater, and the End draws near. 

This time? This time Dream fights with them, sword in hand and Wilbur’s bow firing behind him, covering for him. This time he fights beside Techno and Phil and Tommy, one of them. This time he’s not alone anymore, fighting against the darkness in his own head. 

This time it’s not a dream, but a reality. All of them, together. Fighting. A family united against the thing that took their friends, against the destruction swallowing their world. 

It’s a family who enters the End, and faces the dragon. Who bottle it’s breath to cure their friends who followed them through the portal of the influence. Who plan to use that breath to burn away the creeping red that took their world. 

It’s a family who kill the dragon, and exit the End. 

It’s a family who find themselves in a bright new world in the depths of caverns unfamiliar, the portal shutting behind them. 

And Dream? 

He’s one of them this time. 

**Author's Note:**

> 1) In a sad way, Dream did something very much true to his character. He has stated before the goal of his character is to get everyone to unite and for the dream smp to be like "a big happy family" and in a way he has united them all - even if the cost was him being such a big villain that they would all unite against him to achieve that goal. 
> 
> 2) Casual reminder that Dream has been betrayed by all of his friends / no longer has any friends, including Punz since Punz betrays him in the most recent streams. It's entirely possible that he saw Tommy as a friend, and still did until Punz betrayed him. He may see Wilbur as a friend still, since their relationship would not have deteriorated while Wilbur was dead and they left on a semi-positive note. Dream also seems to respond positively to Ghostbur, even though the ghost is somewhat frightened of Dream.
> 
> 3) Wilbur visiting Dream after he leaves Tommy and Tubbo makes sense because they left one another on a semi-positive note, as Dream assists him with getting the resources for his TNT during Wilbur's Finale. They were also somewhat neutral after L'manberg gained independence, and Dream/Techno/Phil blowing up L'manberg would not lower Wilbur's actual opinion of them since he literally did the same thing.
> 
> 4) Betraying family hurts a lot. Wilbur would still feel betrayed by Tommy yelling at him when he was Ghostbur (it is similar to Fundy putting all the blame on Ghostbur) and as such is still a bit bitter about it. However, this does not mean he does not love Tommy, because Tommy is still his little brother and he is proud of Tommy for overcoming his fears. It's sort of like Techno tolerating Tommy being annoying because even though Techno personally doesn't see it the same way, Tommy still views him as a brother.  
> (Also, personally, I think Tommy calling Techno his brother when he steals from him is part of why Techno lets him go without much of a fight. Aside from clout. Clout > everything else. Except Phil. Phil>Clout>everything else.)
> 
> 5) Dream redemption arc would be hilarious. Wilbur doesn't care about redemption because he wasn't wrong, really, was he? (Most notably, him telling Tommy that Tubbo would betray him and then being right about it. He was right about a lot of things, actually. In fact, looking back at Wilbur's arc it's very clear in retrospect that he was becoming self-destructive and stressed. Canonically, Wilbur would cry into a pillow every night from stress. This is in itself suspicious because Wilbur did not have a house the entire time he was president, and also continued to not eat or carry food on him, only eating when he needed to heal or run.
> 
> This becomes deliberate during the Pogtopia arc, though Wilbur ate when Techno handed him baked potatoes. Wilbur also showed little regard for his own safety during the battles, and showed no attempts in moving away from the explosives when he pressed the button, injuring himself from the impact. When Tommy asked him during the Election Arc what would happen if they lost, Wilbur does not appear to worry about it, and seems almost relieved at the idea.)
> 
> (Also, a line I particularly love - immediately after making the hole that becomes the entrance to Pogtopia after being exiled, Wilbur tells Tommy that he is "a long fuse" implying that he was lit a long time ago, referencing Eret's betrayal (which inspires Wilbur's later paranoia snap) and his presidential stress. He also seems quite willing to go "make a cottage in the woods" after being exiled, which I later connected to Techno making his cottage in the snow. Then Fundy takes down the walls in front of him and burns the flag, which also is a betrayal and cracks Wilbur further into his spiral. Wilbur had been falling into said spiral for a long time. Nobody noticed. A downside of being a good actor both ooc and canonically, as Wilbur is referenced to being quite manipulative/a good actor in canon.)
> 
> 6) Egg is more dangerous than Dream because Dream was manipulative, not actually mind controlling. (DreamXD on the other hand is a separate godly entity, and may deliberately wipe people's memories of the End / what an End Portal is.)
> 
> My personal theory for the end of the world / beginning of a 1.17 world (since it involved world generation, and the Dream SMP has already loaded a lot of chunks) is that to burn away the egg/seed/vines they need Dragon's Breath, an actual item in minecraft acquired during battling the Ender Dragon. After they get it / cure their friends with it, they kill the dragon/go through the portal back to the overworld and are displaced to a different world/part of the world, where they can explore the new 1.17 caverns to their hearts content and maybe Wilbur can even begin a "New Pogtopia" underground, a place where everyone can live in peace and they can all get some dang therapy because by god they need it.


End file.
